All she desired! There seemed no end to that. Not only Maggie and Bessie, but Belle also, who was accustomed to the most unbounded indulgence, and to have every wish gratified, stood amazed at the number and quantity of dainties which Mabel demanded, and which she was allowed to have. Parcel after parcel was put up for her, till not only her own hands and those of her already well-laden nurse were filled to overflowing, but those of her mother also. "Now do come, dear," said the latter, when it was impossible that any one of the three could carry another thing: "let us go and see the little cousin, and she shall share them with you." "No, she shan't," whined Mabel: "I don't want little cousin, and I shan't have her now." "Well, never mind, then. She is such a nervous child," said her mother, turning to Mrs. Bradford. "She shall not tease you if you do not choose. Come, darling, won't you, with poor mamma?" But it took so much more promising and coaxing before the unruly child could be persuaded by her weary but foolish mother to go on, that Mrs. Bradford made her purchases and quitted the store with her own little flock, leaving Mabel still whining and fretting, and at the last moment insisting upon having a sugar "Temple of Liberty," which the shopwoman told her was not for sale, but only put there for show. "That's the spoildest child I ever saw," said Belle, as they turned homewards, each little girl by her own desire laden with a parcel. "Yes," said Maggie: "she's just the kind of a child to cry for the moon, and get it too, if she could; but she couldn't. I'm glad," she added, with an air of deep wisdom, "that our parents saw the error of their ways and didn't train us up that way. What are you laughing at, mamma?" But mamma made no answer; the reason of which Maggie took to be that just at that moment she bowed to a gentleman who was passing; and before she could repeat her question Bessie spoke. "I'm glad enough I'm not her little cousin she is going to see. I'm sorry for her cousin." "So am I," said Belle. "I wouldn't have such a cousin as Mabel for any thing. She's too horrid." "You have a cousin named Mabel, though, haven't you?" asked Maggie. "Yes, so I have; but then she's not one bit like that Mabel, you know," answered Belle. "You never saw her, did you?" asked Bessie. "No, 'cause she lives about a million thousand of miles off, way off in Boston; but she is coming to see me some time," said Belle. "But if you never saw her, how can you tell she is not one bit like that child?" asked Bessie. "Why how could she be?" demanded Belle, indignantly: "her mamma is my papa's own sister, and he'd never have such a foolish lady as that for his sister. I guess he wouldn't;" and Belle shook her head in a manner which seemed to say that such an idea was to be put out of the question at once. "Yes: you know 'birds of a feather flock together,'" said Maggie. "What does that mean?" asked Bessie.